Pressure mounts on Labor to protect koalas by ending logging of their habitat
By Laura Chung
Pressure is mounting on Labor to end logging in the proposed Great Koala National Park, as politicians and environmental groups say the plans fly in the face of biodiversity protections.
A coalition of peak environmental groups, including the Nature Conservation Council and World Wildlife Fund, and 13 local community conservation groups within the proposed area, gathered outside NSW Parliament on Wednesday to voice concerns over the logging practices.
Plans to create the Great Koala National Park fly in the face of logging in the area, environmental groups say.Credit: Kate Geraghty
The proposed national park would link together and protect existing national parks and state forests and add other critical habitats from South West Rocks, north of Coffs Harbour, to Woy Woy on the Central Coast, and areas inland over parts of the Great Dividing Range.
But large parts of the proposed park are earmarked for logging in the coming months. Forestry Corporation NSW plans show that over the next 12 months it intends to log 30,813 hectares of a total 175,000 hectares of state forests that fall within the boundaries of the proposed national park, home to one in five of the state’s surviving koalas.
Great Koala National Park Advocacy Group convenor Mark Graham said the coalition was calling on the government to stop logging in the park, start the fair transition of timber workers, and begin creating the park.
“We are seeking a future for our koalas... This is the only way to protect and restore their habitat,” he said.
Various NSW politicians will join the advocacy group, including independent MP Alex Greenwich, Liberal Democrat John Ruddick and the Greens’ Sue Higginson.
“Right now we are still logging ... we are literally destroying and taking away core koala habitat,” Higginson said. “It is politically, legally and socially, economically and environmentally untenable to do what this government is doing right now.”
Nature Conservation Council NSW chief Jacqui Mumford said it was critical the forest was protected for the Great Koala National Park.
“Native forest logging is driving iconic species like the koala to extinction,” she said. “If the government are serious about the Great Koala National Park they will ensure there are koalas there to protect. Allowing Forestry Corp to keep logging the proposed area over the coming years sets the koala populations there up for failure.”
Of particular concern is the planned logging at Pine Creek, which environmental advocates say is critical to the integrity of the park.
NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said current harvesting activities in Pine Creek State Forest were plantation forestry, which is not included in the national park.
“Forestry Corporation NSW has proposed a native forestry operation in Pine Creek State Forest that could take place in the next 12 months. That does not mean that harvesting will take place. These operations remain a proposal,” she said.
Environment Minister Penny Sharpe says work on the Great Koala National Park is already underway.Credit: Peter Rae
“Planning for the park has commenced. In the meantime, the NSW government is not considering a blanket moratorium on forestry operations in the area. Plantation harvesting will go ahead.”
She added the government remained committed to creating the park within this term of government and work was already underway, which would be made public in the coming months.
“The process to establish the park will involve seeking scientific advice, consulting with all stakeholders, and will include an independent economic assessment of the park’s impact on local jobs and communities,” Sharpe said.
The stoush comes as Victoria announced it would end all logging in its state forests by 2024, bringing that state into line with Western Australia.
Opposition environment spokesperson Kellie Sloane said the Coalition was yet to see any detailed plans for the national park.
“The Coalition provided a comprehensive plan and delivered the biggest commitment by any government to protect koalas with an investment of more than $190 million to deliver targeted conservation actions,” she said. “As part of that plan, the Coalition allocated funding to buy up parcels of Koala habitat. We’re now seeing Labor announce the former government’s projects as their own.”
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